Ethan said that I would be better off making a blog about this instead of saying it all in this thread and ignoring the "no more posts after this" rule, so I think I will.

Look, we all should realize that while most of us are thrilled to go to a forum where we can take part in constructive discussion about the show we love, there are some obvious flaws to the way it actually runs on a daily basis.

There are some people on the forum who are more mature than others, but if you think about it, that's how life in the outside world works too. Yes, there are some people who are still nothing short of a headache after several years who continue to haunt the boards. But is it really fair to start a full fledged rally against a new member when they may not be used to the site just yet? Every time I see a new thread pop up that I know goes against everything that the members who give a crap about the guide are striving for, I sit back and watch the fun begin. Someone posts a reply explaining why the thread should not have been made, a reason why, and information for future reference (and "no more posts after this"). Then someone else adds their opinion on it ("no more posts after this"). Then someone else comes up with something to say (again, "no more posts after this"). Is it just me, or does "no more posts after this" never seem to actually work the way we'd like it to? If you're not a moderator or an editor, you have no authority other than reporting the posts to somebody who actually is.

In theory, thread check is a great tool to combat the problem. The problem is that new members tend to just search for the threads that are of most interest to them first, and if they don't, they just go and start up a new one. I doubt any member who knows nothing about the guide would even think to go to thread check beforehand. Hell, when I first came here, I didn't even know topics were referred to as threads until I actually got involved a little more and learned some forum lingo.

I guess my question is this: does the Thomas forum even need any additional threads? We are already faced with 28 pages chock full of topics that make up the Thomas forum at this very moment. Chances are that if someone wants to talk about something Thomas related, there is probably an existing thread in which to do so. It seems that for the past few months, there haven't been all that many new topics that have actually become active; exception being any sort of notable event or speculation about the future of the show. I know David, he's one of my closest online friends. I seriously feel that constantly turning to him to delete threads that should have never been made in the first place is just unfair to him. His job is to moderate submissions and take care of serious matters on the forum, not the nonsense that his inbox must be flooded with day after day.

So yeah, the bottom line is that we should stop allowing new threads to be made unless it is a topic that will spawn off constructive discussion, which will be determined by either David or a certain number of other forum members. I'm not expecting any progress to be made or anything because it rarely ever does, but I hope you'll at least give it some thought.

While I'm at it, I might as well go ahead and tell you about my summer in one paragraph or less. It's been stressful, relaxing, depressing, and thrilling. I got things set straight with my girlfriend, even though my family still hates her. I went to a three day orientation at college where I was thrown out of bed at two in the morning so my roomate could have sex with his new girlfriend. I went to Atlantic City and Disney World, had a lot of fun at each. I'm going to Cooperstown on Friday, then I'm doing nothing until I start college. In short, the remainder of my summer has consisted of sleeping until noon every day and hanging out at the station once in a while to watch trains. What an awesome life.

Oh, where's my manners? Forgot that you can have a song too. That would be Rum is for Drinking Not for Burning by Senses Fail.